Developing a Login System with PHP and MySQL

The component that allows a user to register his preferred login id and password

The component that allows the system to verify and authenticate the user when he subsequently logs in

The component that sends the user’s password to his registered email address if the user forgets his password

Such a system can be easily created using PHP and MySQL.

Component 1 – Registration

Component 1 is typically implemented using a simple HTML form that contains 3 fields and 2 buttons:

A preferred login id field

A preferred password field

A valid email address field

A Submit button

A Reset button

Assume that such a form is coded into a file named register.html. The following HTML code excerpt is a typical example. When the user has filled in all the fields, the register.php page is called when the user clicks on the Submit button.

The following code excerpt can be used as part of register.php to process the registration. It connects to the MySQL database and inserts a line of data into the table used to store the registration information.

The code excerpt assumes that the MySQL table that is used to store the registration data is named tbl_login and contains 3 fields – the loginid, password and email fields. The values of the $loginid, $password and $email variables are passed in from the form in register.html using the post method.

Component 2 – Verification and Authentication

A registered user will want to log into the system to access the functionality provided by the website. The user will have to provide his login id and password for the system to verify and authenticate.

This is typically done through a simple HTML form. This HTML form typically contains 2 fields and 2 buttons:

A login id field

A password field

A Submit button

A Reset button

Assume that such a form is coded into a file named authenticate.html. The following HTML code excerpt is a typical example. When the user has filled in all the fields, the authenticate.php page is called when the user clicks on the Submit button.

As in component 1, the code excerpt assumes that the MySQL table that is used to store the registration data is named tbl_login and contains 3 fields – the loginid, password and email fields. The values of the $loginid and $password variables are passed in from the form in authenticate.html using the post method.

Component 3 – Forgot Password

A registered user may forget his password to log into the website’s system. In this case, the user will need to supply his loginid for the system to retrieve his password and send the password to the user’s registered email address.

This is typically done through a simple HTML form. This HTML form typically contains 1 field and 2 buttons:

A login id field

A Submit button

A Reset buttonAssume that such a form is coded into a file named forgot.html. The following HTML code excerpt is a typical example. When the user has filled in all the fields, the forgot.php page is called when the user clicks on the Submit button.

As in component 1, the code excerpt assumes that the MySQL table that is used to store the registration data is named tbl_login and contains 3 fields – the loginid, password and email fields. The value of the $loginid variable is passed from the form in forgot.html using the post method.

Conclusion

The above example is to illustrate how a very basic login system can be implemented. The example can be enhanced to include password encryption and additional functionality – e.g. to allow users to edit their login information.

Author: John LThis article is written by daBoss. daBoss is the Webmaster of Designer Banners. daBoss can be contacted at sales (at) designerbanners (dot) com.